Winsted building official says stand owner was building permanent structure with no permit

WINSTED >> As festival season winds down, town officials confirmed that the blockage of a farm stand had nothing to do with the business in question. Instead, building official Marc Melanson said, the issue was a business owner's desire to build a permanent structure.

In July, Melanson said, the owner of a business selling produce out of a trailer attempted to build a permanent farm stand in the former Ivery and Dudley parking lot on Main Street. While the business owner -- who could not be reached at press time -- had not had any issues before, the permanent stand would be a problem.

"He was there building a structure," Melanson said, "and I told him he needed a permit."

Melanson said the person attempting to build the stand never followed up with his department to apply for a permit, and that Winsted has not had any other issues with people attempting to build farm stands in town.

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The only problem with the proposed stand was that it was a permanent structure in a parking lot. The stand -- which had signs urging residents to call Melanson or town manager Dale Martin, reading "Thank them for the loss of your farm stand" -- was soon demolished.

According to Patrick Barrett, who organized the Winsted Farmers Market, the person attempting to build the stand had sold produce successfully in the North Main Street parking lot, which is north of Wallens Avenue. Melanson said "he had a vendor's permit for that," but Barrett said the person had been told to stop selling produce at the parking lot once he set up a farm stand. No reason could be given for the order to stop selling produce in the parking lot.